Paranoid
by KrC
Summary: They all thought he was just paranoid. All except one. Now a series of one-shots/drabbles.
1. Paranoid Robin

**Hi, just read the fic 'A look into a Troubled Past' by BookLover223 and this story just hit me. I am meant to be studying for a chem test I have tomorrow but instead I'm writing this, so thankyou BookLover, you just fuelled my procrastination.**

**This is inspired by the lines about John always checking the ropes and about Dick in Juvie. Oh, and I own nothing but the loss of study time ;)**

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><p><span>Paranoid<span>

By KrC

None of the others understood Robin's habits. They couldn't understand why before every mission he would bring out his grappling gun, check to see if it worked four times and then check it five more. 'Just in case.' He would always say.

They would never know why he always left a room first and entered it last. They wondered why he always triple checked the lock on his door or why he always had his back to the wall but still had a direct route to the nearest exit. 'I don't like to be snuck up on.' Was the younger boy's explanation.

They thought that he had just inherited the Bat's paranoia.

Wally didn't.

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><p>Wally knew that Robin constantly checked his grapple because every time he used it he was terrified it would snap and he would fall, just like his parents did.<p>

Wally knew that without Bruce there to convince him otherwise, the thought that being left alone with someone else in a room meant that he would be beaten and that at any moment he could be jumped from behind was always in the back of his mind. Juvie tended to do that to a kid, especially at nine.

They thought that Robin the most paranoid kid they knew.

Wally thought he was the strongest.

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><p><strong>I don't know what to think of this, turned out to be more of a drabble than I expected. Actually, it turned pretty differently to what I had in my head, although I only had the first couple of paragraphs planned out and the rest just wrote itself. <strong>

**Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading! I try to respond to my reviews so please leave one, I really want to know what you thought of this!**


	2. Pretender Megan

**Hey, so I had originally planned to leave this as an oneshot/drabble thing but DragoneseElf's idea intrigued me and then I was hit with inspiration on my walk home from the bus stop today. So I will eventually do similar character quirks/personality explorations for the team, but they'll most likely be different from 'Paranoid'. Anyway, second up is Megan.**

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><p><span>Pretender<span>

It was hard, sometimes, to fit the image of Earth that she gained from sitcoms to the teens she saw almost everyday. In that image the worst thing that could happen was being dumped by your boyfriend, all children had to worry about was what game they were going to play or which sibling to annoy first, true love just happened and the world _always_ made sense again at the end of the day.

But instead she was faced with the fact that Conner could _die_, and nearly has, Robin had his childhood stolen from him and threw birdarangs instead of Frisbees, it was a battle to get Connor to even _accept_ the concept of love let alone admit he felt it and at the end of the day, the world had just become more messed up than yesterday. But no one else seemed to feel as _alien_ as she did most days so she just put a smile on the face she was still getting used to and pretended that things were just peachy, even when everything felt as if it was slipping right through her fingers.

But, she supposed, that was ok. She had to play pretend everyday anyway, one more part to her role wouldn't make any difference.

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><p><strong>Don't know how good this is, reviews are completely welcome since I don't know Megan as well as I do other characters so if it was OOC than someone pointing it out would be helpful! I have some ideas for Wally, so maybe I'll do him next.<strong>


	3. Hyperactive Wally

**Ummmm, hi. Sorry for the massively long wait. No real excuses and I can't think of anything witty, so without further ado, here is the next chapter of 'Paranoid' it's Wally's turn this time.**

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><p><span>Hyperactive<span>

He really should have been paying more attention to Dick when he had been talking about the glitches he hadn't fixed in the new electronic locks. He really wished he had, because if he did then this whole situation would never have happened.

The day had started out innocently, the team was just hanging out after a training session with Black Canary when the open bottle of coke had been knocked onto the floor during the mock-wrestling match between Dick and Wally. Feeling partly responsible for the mess, Wally had offered to find a mop and speed-clean the spilled soft drink. Finding the nearest broom closet hadn't taken long (it helped when running through the entire mountain only took a minute or so) and it was when Wally was inside and rummaging around for a bucket to go with the mop that he had found when it happened.

The door and slid shut behind him, a glitch causing the door to open from the outside only. Wally was locked in with no way out.

Suddenly the shadows seemed that much deeper, the walls that much closer and the air that much thinner. Hyperventilating, vibrating and altogether falling apart Wally swore that he could _feel_ the food he ate five minutes ago being respired into the energy that at any other time he would welcome with open arms. But now he wished he was starving because there was nowhere for that energy to _go_ and he could feel it building up and up and up, threatening to consume him with its demand for release.

He didn't realise that he was banging on the door and screaming his throat dry until the door suddenly slid open and his fists had been held still by gentle hands. Wally threw his arms around his saviours, crying and babbling and vibrating as uncertain hands encircled him.

"Shh, Wally." Artemis murmured softly. "It's okay, just breathe."

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><p><strong>Did I surprise anyone with that ending? Did it even make sense? And my first piece of spoken speech in this series, yea!<strong>

**As always, please review and let me know what you think!**


	4. Betrayed Kaldur

**Heh heh heh. Been awhile, eh? So sorry that this took so long but I'm in my final year of high school and things are getting pretty hectic. Also hated all the ideas I came up with for this chapter, until we saw Season 2!Kaldur. **

**This is basically my interpretation on what is really going on and why Kaldur teamed up with his dad.**

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><p><span>Betrayed<span>

It was three months before he could look himself in the mirror and not hate himself. Another six before he felt worthy enough to do good deeds. And another three before he felt ready for active duty again, although he could never lead.

He should have been on that mission to protect her, and he would never make the same mistake again.

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><p>A call from Nightwing had him on the Surface World before he could report back in to his king.<p>

"I have intel that Black Manta is rising in the ranks of the Light. This is our only chance to get someone on the inside."

Kaldur had agreed, maybe this way he wouldn't see Garth's accusing face, blaming him for a crime everyone had committed that day.

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><p>But now, as he stared at himself in the mirror wearing new armour and his head freshly shaved, he wondered if this mission was such a good idea. Because there was this constant emptiness inside him, an emptiness that tried to fill itself with a raw anger that he couldn't find the source of.<p>

And that's when he realised that that feeling was betrayal. Kaldur had betrayed himself.

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><p><strong>And that's the general gist of why I think Kalder went 'rogue'. I actually have a whole theory about what happened, but I won't go into detail here. Any feedback is welcome, and thanks for reading!<strong>


	5. Afraid Artemis

**Hehe, well it's been a long time hasn't it? Really sorry about the long wait, but inspiration has hit me for Artemis! I'm still considering whether or not I should continue on with the season 2 team members after I finish with the season 1 team. Your opinions on this would be great, just know that I won't do certain members (such as Karen) until I know them a bit better. Anyway, on with the drabble!**

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><p><span>Afraid<span>

Sweaty palms are not good for gripping a bow, Artemis told herself repeatedly as she futilely wiped her hands on her pants. The sight of the bright blonde hair and muscular build was making her feel so sick she felt as if she could throw up any second. Words so painful they physically hurt echoed in her head and she forced her sobs to the back of her throat, crying was a weakness and weakness was _unacceptable. _Just focus on breathing, she reminded herself, do that and maybe you won't break down. Just don't break down.

"Artemis?" The question snapped her out of her internal battle, purely because the voice wasn't _his. _She looked up, her mind finally registering the goatee and sharp cheekbones. Not to mention all the green. Green was safe, green was different, green didn't remind her of _him._

"I'm fine Ollie." Maybe this would actually work.

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><p><strong>I know I did fear before with Wally but I find it kinda odd that Artemis is able to work with someone who shares so many physical traits with her abusive father. So I came up with the headcanon that she actually really struggled with it at first before she was able to differentiate Ollie from her father. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!<strong>


	6. Forgetful Robin

**Omg I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in forever (I just checked when I last updated this and I'm so so sorry that it's been over a year!) I don't really have any excuses, other than RL stresses and I'd procrastinate writing a chapter and then completely forget the idea (which is what happened to the Superboy chapter I'd been planning to write for ages, oops…) Anyway, I had originally planned on doing all of the original 6 at least once before moving on to newer Team members or repeating characters that I'd already done but I forgot the idea I had for Superboy (I remember the gist of it so it should come back to me soon!) and I was hit with inspiration for both Robin and Artemis so yea, at least I kinda make up for the wait with two chapter! Anyway, enough with my rambling and on with the drabbles! Also, this is set during the episode where we meet the Logan family for the first time.**

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><p><span>Forgetful<span>

"_He's 8, he doesn't listen to orders!"_

Marie Logan's words had been echoing inside his mind since the explosion. How could he have been so stupid! He'd dealt with civilians before, he should have remembered that they weren't trained like he and the others were, especially children. The thought made Robin grit his teeth as it reminded him of the constant debate around the use of child side-kicks (_partners_) in vigilantism that had started back when he first became Robin.

They called him a 'child soldier' and claimed that Batman had robbed him of his innocence, among other ridiculous things. He'd always scoffed at the accusations, what did they know anyway? He had always had a choice in this, child soldiers didn't. And besides, no matter what they thought, he'd forgotten what it was like to be a child a long time ago.

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><p><strong>And that's the end of Robin's second drabble! His confidence took a bit of a beating in these episodes, since Failsafe really, and it showed in this ep where he didn't think he was ready to be a leader so I kinda wanted to show that here (Dick also has a tendency to berate himself for mistakes) and to delve more into the effects that his past and current career choice have had on him, especially since he falls easily into mentor!mode with people his age or younger while he connects more easily with people older than him (or at least it appears that way on the show with how the Teams ages were set as). I mean, yea he can be an immature troll a lot of the time but underneath that is someone who knows how to get things done quickly and efficiently, with a whole lot of badass thrown in the mix too, just take a look at how he stepped up in Failsafe and Homefront to keep everyone from falling about while remaining cool as a cucumber. I'm going to stop my rambling here since Dick is my favourite character, pretty much of all time, and I could ramble on about him forever haha.<strong>

**Also, I just looked at the favourite and follower count and omg I didn't realise how many people liked these stories! Thanks so much, you guys are amazing!**


	7. Protector Artemis

**Okay, considering last chapters a/ns were long and rambly, I'm going to be pretty brief this time haha. This is essentially Artemis making the decision to become a hero, and the reasons I think that she'd have to do that.**

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><p><span>Protector<span>

Artemis sat on her bed, in the tiny apartment that she shared with her newly released mother, and stared out the window to the dark, smoggy sky. She had promised her mother that she would never go into the life that her father and planned for her, the one that her sister had chosen, and that she would try in school and get a normal job like a normal girl would. But, the idea that she would be just like every other teenaged girl is this forsaken city was not one she enjoyed.

Ever since her mother had given her a way out from her fathers 'training' she had wondered what it would be like if things were different. What if someone had been there to catch her mom when she fell off that rooftop? What if someone had saved her from her father years ago? Would she be happier? More fulfilled in life? Or would everything be the same, feeling completely lost and guilty all the time because she had been powerless to stop anything that had happened to her family.

She could hear the TV in the living room faintly, as her mother started to watch the news like she always did at this time of night, and as she listened to the muffled reporter describe the Dynamic Duo's latest escapade Artemis made her decision. If no one had been that person for her, maybe she could be for someone else.

Grabbing her bow and quiver and pulling up the hood of her jacket to obscure her face, Artemis climbed out her window and slipped into the shadows, a whispered apology to her mother fading in the breeze.

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><p><strong>I think this is my longest one yet! I hope you all enjoyed it, and hopefully this time I won't leave such a long break between my updates!<strong>


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